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Delete Your Account Podcast

Delete Your Account is a new podcast hosted by journalist Roqayah Chamseddine and her plucky sidekick Kumars Salehi. Every week they will talk about important stories from the worlds of politics and pop culture, both on and off-line, in a way that will never bore you.
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Now displaying: November, 2017
Nov 29, 2017

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!! 

On today's episode, Kumars and returning guest host Mariame Kaba sit down with two movement lawyers at the forefront of the struggle against bail and pre-trial detention. Sharlyn Grace is a lawyer and co-founder of the Chicago Community Bond Fund. Marbre Stahly-Butts is a lawyer and organizer with Law for Black Lives and the Movement for Black Lives Policy Table, and was involved in the recent Black Mamas Bailout. Sharlyn and Marbre cover the basics of money bail in the US and the bail bond industry it sustains. They explain recent efforts on the state and local levels to win reforms to the current bail system, as well as the limitations of some legislative efforts that attempt to undermine the institution of money bail. We discuss the Bail Project, a national effort to bail people out of jail that is funded by big-money donors with unclear motivations and limited connections to the communities they claim to want to help. Mariame warns that this effort, while sounding nice, could starve the several dozen existing community bail funds of donations, despite the fact that these existing organizations are better positioned to build power and provide long-term support to those they serve.

You can follow Mariame on twitter as always at @prisonculture. Follow Sharlyn at @SharlynDGrace, and the Chicago Community Bond Fund at @ChiBondFund. Marbre isn't on twitter, but you can follow Law for Black Lives at @Law4BlackLives. If you want to support the Chicago Community Bond Fund, you can do so here, and you can support the National Bail Fund, the coalition behind the Black Mamas Bailout and similar efforts, here. We didn't have time to discuss it on the episode, but you should also check out @Appolition, a really awesome way to donate to the National Bail Fund.

A transcript for this episode is forthcoming. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

Nov 15, 2017

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!! 

On today's episode, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Blake Simons, an organizer and educator from Oakland, CA. Blake is the co-founder of People’s Breakfast Oakland and also co-hosts Hella Black Podcast which discusses societal issues through a radical Black lens. Blake shares with us how he became radicalized and first got involved in organizing as a student at UC Berkeley. He talks about his role in the Afrikan Black Coalition, a network of Black Student Unions on University of California campuses, and discusses successful campaigns to establish a black student resource center at UC Berkeley and to force the UC to divest from private prisons. Blake also talks about his uncle, Jalil Muntaqim, a member of the Black Panther Party and political prisoner for 45 years, and the impact he has had on Blake's organizing work. We also discuss Blake's current project, People's Breakfast Oakland, which provides meals, hygiene kits, and clothing to houseless people in Oakland, building off of the model championed by the Black Panthers decades ago. We discuss the horrific reality faced by houseless people, even in liberal strongholds like the bay area, and the importance of building alternative structures to support houseless people who will never be served by traditional institutions. We discuss the importance of meeting the material needs of those exploited and abandoned by the state as a necessary precondition to building revolutionary power.

You can follow Blake at @BlakeDontCrack. If you want to support the People's Breakfast in Oakland, reach out to Blake on twitter or donate here.

A transcript for this episode is forthcoming. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

Nov 8, 2017

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!! 

On today's episode, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Wendy Parker and Dan Feidt, two journalists who are part of Unicorn Riot, a decentralized, non-hierarchical media collective that started in 2015. Along with other members of the collective, Wendy and Dan have been reporting on leaked chat logs from a white supremacist organization involved in planning the deadly August "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. After learning more about Unicorn Riot's unique approach to journalism, with stories produced collaboratively and horizontally and entirely through donations from supporters, Wendy and Dan explain how Unicorn Riot was able to get their hands on these private chat logs. These chat logs, comprised of hundreds of thousands of individual messages over months, show definitively that the white supremacist group in question has genocidal aims, despite their efforts to hide their goals from public scrutiny. The chat logs, in addition to revealing the vile politics and violent aims of many adherents of this right-wing ideology, revealed a high level of organization and strong commitment to building power. We learn about how Unicorn Riot's work has made its way into more mainstream outlets, and the effect that this and other similar work is having on the ability of these groups to function effectively. Dan and Wendy describe how members of the collective have been targeted by neo-nazis in retaliation for their work, and how they've been able to stay safe. Finally, we get their thoughts on how journalists can use reporting to fight against fascist organizing, without giving groups or individuals a platform that amplifies their evil message.

You can follow Unicorn Riot at @UR_Ninja. You can follow Dan on Twitter at @hongpong. You can't follow Wendy anywhere, because she deleted all her accounts (nice). Check out Unicorn Riot's searchable database of neo-nazi chat logs, and also check out the helpful anti-doxxing guide from Equality Labs mentioned on the episode.

A transcript for this episode is forthcoming. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

Nov 1, 2017

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!! 

On today's episode, Roqayah and Kumars are joined once again by guest-host extraordinaire Mariame Kaba (@prisonculture on twitter) for an amazing conversation with organizer Opal Tometi, a community organizer and writer who is one of co-founders of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. Opal also serves as the Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).

We learn about how Opal got involved in community organizing and specifically how she came to work at the intersection of immigrant justice and black liberation. Opal explains that one in five immigrants facing deportation is black and black immigrants are more likely to face criminal deportation than any other group. We discuss similarities and differences in the fight for immigrant justice under both Obama and Trump, and the additional difficulties African immigrants face under Trump's travel and refugee bans. We also explore how US imperialism, particularly in Africa, impacts black lives here and abroad.

In addition to discussing Opal's work with BAJI, we also learn about her role in building the Black Lives Matter movement and the Global Network that formed in the wake of the Ferguson, Missouri protests of 2014. Opal also shares what makes her hopeful, and discusses next steps for the world-wide fight for black liberation.

You can follow Opal on Twitter at @opalayo. Follow BAJI at @BAJItweet. Also, check out freedomcities.org, an organizing project building off successes of the sanctuary movement to restructure local communities to protect all marginalized people.

A transcript for this episode is forthcoming. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

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